Adopted child returned to Coptic couple after cleric intervenes

A child taken from his adoptive parents by officials has been returned to the family, Egytian authorities said, after the country’s highest religious authority intervened.

Shenouda, aged five, was found abandoned as an infant and adopted by a Coptic Christian couple in 2018.

But the child was taken into government care in September because of customs, which say that all parentless children must be registered as Muslim. He was converted to Islam and had his name changed.

Prosecutors on Tuesday night issued the order for the return of Shenouda, who had been taken to a Cairo orphanage following a court ruling.

The order was based on an edict from the country’s grand mufti – which said Shenouda belonged with the family that had found and raised him and should be allowed to follow their faith.

Al Azhar, Egypt’s highest seat of Sunni learning, had issued a fatwa of its own on the matter on March 23, stipulating that according to Islamic jurisprudence, the child belonged with Amaal and Farouk Fawzy, his adoptive parents.

The couple’s lawyer had argued there was no law stipulating that Shenouda must be registered as a Muslim.

He said repeated appeals against the first court ruling were rejected.

The couple filed another lawsuit to have Shenouda returned to them. However, on March 18, the administrative court that was reviewing the case declined to issue a ruling, saying it lacked jurisdiction in the matter.

Photos showing Shenouda back with his family were widely circulated on social media on Wednesday and met with celebration.

“Today it feels like my eyesight has returned to me after months of blindness,” Amaal said in a Facebook post.

His return was also lauded by Egyptian rights groups, which had campaigned since September for officials to allow him to return to the couple. Television appearances by the couple, mainly on TV networks watched by Coptic Christians, also stirred the sympathy of millions around Egypt.

The Fawzys told authorities that they found Shenouda abandoned in a churchyard when he was days old.

The pair took him in and raised him as their own, keeping his adoption a secret yet waiting for someone to return for him – but no one has, until now.

They were not aware they were breaking any laws, they said. Since they found him in a church, they assumed that whoever left him was Coptic.

However, last year, a niece of Farouk’s, fearing that the new child would reduce her inheritance cut, filed a report with local authorities that her aunt and uncle were raising a kidnapped child.